Demystifying AI: Advancing science and research

Demystifying AI: Advancing science and research

Wednesday 26th November, 11am - 1pm

Whether you're a project partner for our Demystifying AI grant programme, or simply keen to learn more about current areas of research into AI, this event will provide an invaluable opportunity for you.

The event will kick off with an introduction from Tom Betts, Chair of We The Curious. Tom will explain why AI is a non-negotiable topic for science and discovery centres to explain to audiences. He will provide pointers about the areas of research that are gaining the most interest from industry, Government, and society.

There will then be five lightning talks from researchers who will offer their perspective on AI from a range of scientific fields. After this, attendees will have the opportunity to go into break-out rooms with the speakers for small-group short Q&As.

The lightning talk speakers are:

Professor Kate Royse, Director of the Hartree Centre (STFC, UKRI)

Professor Kate Royse will explore how the Hartree Centre is driving the adoption of  AI across UK industry to boost productivity, innovation, and competitiveness. She will highlight practical examples of AI integration in sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, and energy, and discuss how Hartree’s expertise helps businesses overcome barriers to digital transformation.

A key focus will be the introduction of Mary Coombes, the Hartree Centre’s new state-of-the-art supercomputer. Mary Coombes delivers unprecedented computational power, enabling advanced AI workloads, high-performance computing, and quantum-ready research.

This positions the UK at the forefront of digital innovation, supporting enterprises in tackling complex challenges—from climate modelling to drug discovery. The session will conclude by emphasizing the strategic importance of these investments for the UK’s Innovation Strategy, sustainability goals, and global competitiveness.

Dr Aurelia Sauerbrei, Researcher, UKRI Metascience Fellow, University of Oxford

Dr Aurelia Sauerbrei will introduce how AI systems are transforming healthcare and biomedical research, from tools that help clinicians read scans and lab results, to models that search huge datasets for new patterns in disease and treatment.

These technologies promise faster diagnosis, more personalised care, and more efficient science, with clear potential benefits for patients and society. She will include examples such as chatbots that talk directly with patients and collect information about their symptoms, experiences and needs. Aurelia will then explore what it means to use these tools ethically and show why ethics is not about stopping innovation, but about guiding it so that AI supports good clinical judgement and socially responsible science.

Dr Xingchi Liu, AI for Science, AI Smart Facilities, STFC

AI models are powerful, but they don’t always know how confident they should be in their predictions. Understanding uncertainty can help make AI safer, more transparent, and more trustworthy.

In this talk, Dr Xingchi Liu will look at where uncertainty in the models comes from and why it is important to consider it, especially when AI influences real decisions. The talk will include simple and intuitive examples of how uncertainty is handled in practice, along with a brief look at how these ideas are applied in the work within the AI for Science theme at SCD, STFC.

Dr Francisco Martin-Martinez, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, King's College London

AI, and specifically machine learning, is impacting the prediction of chemical properties, the discovery of new molecules, and the ability to accelerate computer simulations.

In his talk, Dr Francisco Martin-Martinez will show how we can take advantage of this new paradigm to design and simulate nature-inspired materials, targeting applications in self-healing infrastructure, precision agriculture, and energy storage.

Dr Jorge Campos-González, UKRI AI Metascience Fellow, Post-Doctoral Researcher in Agricultural, Environmental and Food Economics, University of Reading

Dr Jorge Campos-González will explore how artificial intelligence (AI) is being used in the agri-food sector, from discovering new livestock feeds that may reduce methane emissions to supporting more targeted and sustainable crop protection.

The talk will give a brief introduction to his UKRI fellowship, sustAInable: AI-Driven Research for Sustainable Agri-Food Futures, which uses millions of online job postings and professional/academic profiles to map who is working on these challenges and where skills and investment are still missing. The talk aims to offer concrete, accessible examples and some questions that science centres can use when developing balanced public engagement on AI and food.

Please note this event is for ASDC members only. If you are a delivery partner for the Demystifying AI grant programme we strongly recommend coming to this event.